Fifteen people in Manipal in Karnataka have been subjected to a medical examination for SARS, after they came in contact with a chief executive officer of an Indo-Malaysian joint venture who has tested positive for the SARS virus.

The 15 also include doctors and nurses and they participated in the same conference attended by the CEO, Udupi District Health Officer Dr Chandramouli said.

The CEO, who arrived from Malaysia with a transit halt in Sri Lanka last month, was the first person to test positive for SARS virus in Karnataka.

Chandramouli said the CEO, who is also a medical practitioner, is healthy and recovering.

Meanwhile, a top Chinese epidemiologist claimed that the situation of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Beijing was stabilising even as six more people fell prey to the disease.

The Ministry of Health said another 118 were infected, taking the cumulative national death toll to 230 and the number of cases to 4,805.

But there was a marked decrease in the number of new cases which went down to 146 on Thursday as compared to 159 on Wednesday, indicating a possible downward spiral as predicted by Chinese epidemiologists, Liang Wannian, deputy director general of Beijing Health Bureau, said.

China's cabinet, meanwhile, decided not to postpone the national entrance examination for 80,000 college-level students.

The deaths occurred even as World Health Organisation experts inspected for the first time the situation in the country's rural areas. A four-member team visited the Baoding village, some 120km south of Beijing in Hebei province for the second day.

Containment of the disease in Hebei is crucial to stop the spread of the deadly virus as Beijing is surrounded by Hebei province. Baoding is home to some 200,000 of Beijing's 'floating population' of migrant workers.

In Hong Kong, two more people died after contracting the virus while six new cases of the disease surfaced.